It is Worthwhile to go to Small Claims Court in Texas

Yale Law Group on Tuesday, May 10, 2011.

In Texas the monetary jurisdictional limits for a small claims court is $10,000.00. This threshold allows a suit to be filed if the total amount that is sought by the plaintiff is less than $10,000.00, however, it is not always wise to take this type of matter to small claims court for a number of reasons. First, many of the judges in Texas for small claims court are not lawyers but members of society who have had little or no training in the law. This leads to inconsistent remedies and results. Second, small claims court judgments can be easily appealed to the county court at law. This makes for double the work for the attorney to take a case through small claims court as the appeal process is a trial de novo (everything is re-litigated). Three, small claims court do not have formal discovery procedures and therefore many times a trial is nothing more than a "shoot from the hip" trial without a fair and proper litigation by the parties. Therefore, we recommend that if the case is important to you, you retain an attorney, and the case be filed either in a county court at law or a state district court.

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